Liberty Mutual Holding Company has reported a net loss of $74 million in Q1 of 2023, which the firm’s CEO attributes primarily to “elevated catastrophe losses largely driven by severe weather storms across the Midwest.”
The reported Q1 net loss compares to a net income attributable to Liberty Mutual of $498 million in the same quarter last year.
Total catastrophe losses in Q1 of 2023 stood at $1.2 billion up 56.6% from 2022’s Q1 ($656 million).
Tim Sweeney, Liberty Mutual President & CEO, said, “Excluding catastrophes, inflation continues to weigh on underlying personal lines results as parts, materials, and labor costs have remained high.
“Given this elevated loss trend environment, we have continued pushing for rate and have achieved premium renewal rate increases of 12.8% in U.S. Personal Lines over the last 12 months.
“Also in the quarter, our Global Risk Solutions business demonstrated progress toward our previously stated combined ratio targets with a total combined ratio of 97.5%, a 2.2-point improvement from the first quarter of 2022.”
In light of the aforementioned loss, Liberty Mutual’s combined ratio climbed 4.3 percentage points to 103.2%.
Elsewhere, net written premiums in Q1 of 2023 stood at $11.8 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the same quarter of 2022. Total revenues also climbed 7.5% to $12.8 billion.
